LAVINIA GREENLAW | MIDWINTER POEMS

As the year comes to a close, three wintry poems for the longest nights.

Read for TOAST by poet and novelist Lavinia Greenlaw, acclaimed British poet and winner of the Ted Hughes award.

Reading Akhmatova in Midwinter and Night Photograph by Lavinia Greenlaw. The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy.

"I’ve written more about winter than any other time of year, travelling to places such as the Arctic, Iceland and Orkney in December. “Reading Akhmatova in Midwinter” is about an ice-storm I experienced in the US, which left every tree, every blade and bud, precisely glazed. Anna Akhmatova was a Russian poet who lived through hardship and revolution, and never lost her clarity. “Night Photograph” was written when crossing the Channel. I wanted to describe darkness at sea but, like all winter light, it turned out to be full of unexpected illumination. As is Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush”, which being about small but persistent hope in a dark world is very much of our time". Lavinia Greenlaw.